Jacquemus is moving into beauty.
The French fashion house will launch a beauty line in partnership with L’Oréal, the companies announced just before L’Oréal’s annual earnings conference on Friday. This marks the designer’s first foray into the category. It’s a long-term partnership, which is “further solidified by a minority investment”, according to the statement.
“Fifteen years ago, I began dreaming of and creating Jacquemus, with perfume and beauty always part of my vision for the brand. Today, I am proud to continue shaping this dream with the leading beauty group, L’Oréal. I’m excited to see what the future holds for us,” said the designer.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jacquemus and unleash together its outstanding luxury beauty potential. With its singular brand positioning, fuelled by sensational creativity and social-first playfulness, Jacquemus will perfectly complement L’Oréal Luxe’s portfolio of iconic brands and reinforce our worldwide leadership,” added L’Oréal Luxe president Cyril Chapuy.
“We do not intend to go higher in the capital of Jacquemus,” Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal, said during the earnings conference. “We do not intend to own fashion brands. We happen to have one, which is Mugler, but it was part of the acquisition from Clarins. But overall, we are very good at doing beauty and I’m not sure we would be as good at doing fashion. So, we let the experts lead their own brands. [The investment] is a good way to show Simon [Porte Jacquemus] that we are supportive and believe in this brand. And it helps him develop his retail project. This is equivalent to an upfront for a license.”
Pressed by reporters to provide a timeline for the release of its first products, Chapuy replied: “Generally, if you want to do proper luxury work it takes two years. We are going to work with Simon in the next two years on how we can surprise the beauty planet. At this stage, fragrance is obvious, what else we‘ll see. Simon is very creative, he has lots of ideas.” Distribution will be selective. “Have a look where we are distributed with Prada and Valentino, and you’ll have an idea where Jacquemus will be distributed,” he continued.
The Jacquemus deal comes after L’Oréal acquired the beauty license of Miu Miu in February 2024, taking over the Miu Miu beauty business from Coty. First products developed by L’Oréal are slated to launch in the second part of 2025.
Jacquemus was said to be entering a beauty deal with Spanish company Puig in 2021, according to a WWD report at the time. While those talks apparently never materialised, the designer never gave up on the idea. “We’re also thinking about diversifying into beauty. Jacquemus has everything it takes to be a great beauty brand; we have the universe, the art of living and the magic to do it,” he told Le Figaro in October 2024 on the back of the opening of the brand’s first store in New York on 18 October.
Jacquemus has been a case study in succeeding as an independent Parisian brand. Turnover was €270 million in 2023, up from approximately €200 million in 2022 and €100 million in 2021, as previously reported by Vogue Business. The brand is not immune to the wider luxury slowdown, though, and 2024 was more challenging, the designer signalled to Le Figaro. “Not to mention the fact that, with the Olympic Games, Avenue Montaigne suffered the full force of the decline in visitors this summer. In reality, we’re not doing badly as the smallest house on the avenue, with more accessible prices and therefore a lower average shopping basket,” he told the French newspaper.
In the same article, the designer said he is looking for a minority investor. “I value my independence, I want to pass the company on to my children, but I need to break the glass ceiling by finding the right partner who will remain a minority shareholder,” he said.
Simon Porte Jacquemus founded his womenswear brand in 2009 at only age 19 (he added menswear in 2018) and has defied the odds by growing while staying independent in an industry that gives an edge to conglomerates. The brand has been without a CEO since Bastien Daguzan, Jacquemus’s former business partner, departed the brand in December 2023. Recent rumours named ex-Celine executive Sarah Benady as heading to the house.
For his latest show held during Paris men’s week in January, he dipped into his archives from the last 15 years involving stripes, dots, red and a banana print. After opening a first permanent store on Paris’s Avenue Montaigne in 2022 and in New York and London in October and November 2024 respectively, the brand is slated to open in Los Angeles in April and Miami in 2026.
In March 2024, Jacquemus was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the highest French ministerial award for cultural achievement. When presenting him with his medal, Vogue’s Anna Wintour praised his entrepreneurial attitude and his knack for viral accessories like the Mini Chiquito bag, Luke Leitch wrote. She described his aesthetic as: “a dream life of cheerful, sexy self-portraiture wrapped up in a collection of useful Frenchness”.
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